It seems like TNT is cutting out some parts in the episodes. I remember a part in BSMH towards the end when mark's father and elizabeth's mother were singing together at the restaraunt. I don't remember seeing that part in the episode on TNT.

-- Julie (jbarracato@angelfire.com), October 05, 2000

Answers

They always cut out some scenes in tnt episodes. It's usually not something important and is very short so the show can fit in the hour. On All in the Family, after that woman tells Romano he has a call, they edit out where he says thank u to her and something else...little stuff like that

-- Ryan Mulligan (pxpres@idt.net), October 05, 2000.

Yeah. They cut out the part where Mark's dad and Elzabeth's mom were singing. That was a funny part.

-- Stephanie (ERGirl22@aol.com), October 05, 2000.

I didn't mnotice anything out of "All In The Family", probably because I was crying during the episode. But in "Be Still My Heart" I think they took out the part where Carol says to Luka "Welcome to the ER on Valentine's Day" or something like that.

-- Cammie (rmaelhorn@home.com), October 05, 2000.

Yes, I did notice that they cut out that scene from "BSMH." I love that scene! It's funny when Elizabeth is explaining "Gigi" to Mark and he says something like, "Stop, I don't think I can stand this night getting any stranger," (I don't think that was exactly the line, but it's close enough.) Little does he know how strange and horrible it's going to get. And they cut out a line when the woman tells Romano that the supervisor is on the phone and he shouts, "Thank you!" sarcastically back at her in "AITF." It was pretty inconsequential. I don't understand why they have to cut out scenes to make it an hour and NBC can put them in, but ABC cuts out scenes, too. The thing that really bothered me was when they cut out the scene in "The Peace of Wild Things," when Carol says, "I miss Doug." That seemed like a fairly important scene to me, but oh well! I also noticed that there was a "Previously, on ER" in TNT's version of "BSMH," while there was not originally. The still picture they used at the end of "AITF" was sweet because it was a good picture of Kellie Martin, it wasn't a capture from the epi. like they usually are. I've noticed lots of changes!

~Jessica~ ;-)

-- Jessica (princessleia913@excite.com), October 05, 2000.

Here's my theory on TNT and ABC cut out some of the scenes from ER. I remember a while back CNN had a town hall meeting kind of thing and would only allow the other networks to air teo minutes of the whole thing since it was originally theirs. So since ER belongs to NBC they only allow TNT and ABC to air a certain amount. Do you know what I mean? Does anyone think this is the case?

-- Cammie (rmaelhorn@home.com), October 05, 2000.

Here's my theory on TNT and ABC cut out some of the scenes from ER. I remember a while back CNN had a town hall meeting kind of thing and would only allow the other networks to air teo minutes of the whole thing since it was originally theirs. So since ER belongs to NBC they only allow TNT and ABC to air a certain amount. Do you know what I mean? Does anyone think this is the case?

-- Cammie (rmaelhorn@home.com), October 05, 2000.

Sorry for the double posting. Also in "Be Patient" on TNT tonight they had "Previously on ER" and yet in NBC they skipped it all together.

-- Cammie (rmaelhorn@home.com), October 05, 2000.

There is one and only one reason they cut scenes on TNT...and it's not anything creative. It's about money. Cold, hard cash. They can cut a few seconds here and there and have more commercial time to sell. That's it. They've done it from the start too, so I expected it with Season 6. There was an epi a while back where they completely left out the birth of a baby though it balanced a painful death (don't remember which one, so someone else please help me out here!). I could be wrong, but I don't think any amount of complaints to TNT would change this practice. This is about the bottom line. I, however, find it sad that TPTB have allowed this. I guess it was about money only for them too. Maybe they should start making the epis shorter first run so nothing has to be cut.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), October 05, 2000.

To the best of my knowledge, they didn't do it two years ago when they first began rerunning the episodes. I taped all of season 1, 2, and 3 off of TNT and the episodes are perfectly intact. Subsequent airings have missing scenes, some of them being very important ones.

-- Phyl (erfan@flash.net), October 05, 2000.

BTW, the last sentence in my post just above was sarcastic. I don't really think they should cut the length of the epi, I am irritated that the epis are being cut by TNT and the only people who have any power over that (that's why they're called TPTB) haven't intervened.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), October 06, 2000.

I've noticed the commercial breaks are a lot longer on TNT than on NBC, which I think lends credibility to the money theory. Personally I find it irritating to have to watch long commercials. I actually have time to go get a snack or something like that during TNT commercials!

-- Merilee A. (smswain@xmission.com), October 06, 2000.

Supposedly there is some equipment a station can use to run a tape a little faster (to make the show shorter) without people's voices becoming higher pitched. But maybe it's expensive, since they'd rather cut scenes. Oh well, imagine "the fastest show on TV" running even faster!

-- Driad (driad@mailcity.com), October 06, 2000.

I noticed this too. You can listen to a whole song on the radio or on your tape recorder before TNT goes from commericial back to "ER". The average song is 4 mins. right? That's one long commercial.

-- Cammie (rmaelhorn@home.com), October 06, 2000.

I totally agree with Diana that is all about money. They can't charge as much for ad space as the networks can on prime time so they just add more commercials. I am sure ER is probably an expensive to buy for syndication.

-- amanda (amanda.rehm@home.com), October 06, 2000.

I figured it was all about money, too. I have noticed ever since last February (when I first started watching "ER" on TNT) that the commercial breaks are a *lot* longer than on NBC. Of course, I'd never seen any of the other episodes first-run, so this is just the first time I'd noticed scenes missing. I hate that so much! TPTB should change that, but I guarantee they won't! Oh well...

~Jessica~

-- Jessica (princessleia913@excite.com), October 06, 2000.

Another scene cut from BSMH - Remember the "talked about" scene where there is a 'shadowy figure' in the ER when Luka and Carol take the children in to see their deceased parents? (later concensus what that it was Laura Innes trying to move out of a scene she was directing). Well I finally got to see my TNT tape of BSMH and guess what - it's gone! Just goes to show you, whether it's part of the storyline or just a fun scene - TNT will chop it off!

-- Lolina (lolina_69@hotmail.com), October 07, 2000.

I've been noticing this too. The epi name completely escapes me at the moment, but a recent TNT epi, they cut out this huge scene where Elizabeth reams Dr. Dave and Abby for screwing up a diagnosis. They left in the scene later where she mentioned it to Mark. If you were seeing it for the first time, it would be very confusing. To me, that was a pretty significant scene they hacked out!

-- Rubi (mommyof2@sigecom.net), October 08, 2000.

Okay, so we know why TNT shows more commercials during ER. But what about ABC? I mean ABC can afford it. Especially with that "Millionaire" show and the fact that it's on 4 nights a week now and still doing very well. In fact I heard someone say , on The Fox News Channel I think, that "Millionaire" is a gold mine for ABC. SO they can afford it for sure. What's the reasoning for that?

-- Cammie (rmaelhorn@home.com), October 08, 2000.

Actually, it was NBC that hacked out that Dave-Abby-Elizabeth scene in "Such Sweet Sorrow," when they re-ran in a few weeks ago. It hasn't run on TNT yet.

-- Tracy (bankybooda@aol.com), October 09, 2000.

I am not sure how the syndication rights work, but is ABC actually paying for the rights to syndicate ER or is being paid by the individual affiliates? Are ALL ABC affiliates airing re-runs of ER? Besides, the ad rates that can be charged are determined just a few times a year (during sweeps) and that depends on how much a station can charge for ads during a show. Local stations have this same "sweeps" time period and I assume that determines what the individual affiliate could charge during syndicated programming. Ad space during the 11:30 hour is probably comparably low. Does anyone know for sure how all of this works? All I know is that any syndicated show or shows on cable tend to have way more commercials than a first run show on prime time...and it is all about money. As for NBC cutting that scene with Elizabeth/Abby/Dave maybe that got a lot of negative response about that scene and thought it best to cut it? I personally thought it was a very good scene.

-- amanda (amanda.rehm@home.com), October 09, 2000.

Amanda, where I live, two epis are run on WB every weekend (actually their both run twice); but not on the ABC channel.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), October 09, 2000.

As far as I remember, the idea o cable was to give you a TV that you'd pay for, so you'd have less commercials, in fact, when the whole idea started (outside USA), there were no commercials at all and they would put videos of sports or music to fill the pauses so you could go to the bathroom...why has that changed? IMHO because the cable companies are greedy and producers like NBC are greedy enought to allow them to cut what should be considered intellectual or artistic property and shouldnt be cut. The same goes for the tiny 1 micromilimiter credits.

-- jules (jules@operamail.com), October 09, 2000.

About the missing credits ...that bugs me! I watched a movie that was being replayed on TNT (I think) a few weeks ago. I had never seen the movie before and was wondering who one of the actors was, but - you guessed it- they didn't even run the credits at the end (either that or the screen was minimized and you would have needed a high powered microscope to read them!). They had to fit that one extra commericial in there I guess!

-- amanda (amanda.rehm@home.com), October 09, 2000.

I hate the fact that TNT has cut out the previews for the next episode of "ER." I know the shows are reruns, but I still like to know what is coming up next.

-- Katrina (cattrek2@hotmail.com), October 10, 2000.

Wasn't it yesterday's episode where Carter goes to a bathroom stall and cries? I'd say that was an important scene :(

-- Roybal (jroybal33@excite.com), October 11, 2000.

Someone asked the other day on another thread about when "May Day" the season finale for Season 6, would be on again. I couldn't find that thread (it's possibly been deleted) and I didn't want to start another one, but if anyone's interested...MD will be on Monday, 10/16, at 5 pm on TNT.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), October 11, 2000.

I hate the fact that TNT has cut out the previews for the next episode of "ER." I know the shows are reruns, but I still like to know what is coming up next.

-- Katrina

I liked the promos, too! Sure, I knew what was going to happen (at least in this season), but I still would have liked to hear how they previewed "Be Still My Heart," or others.

*** Wasn't it yesterday's episode where Carter goes to a bathroom stall and cries? I'd say that was an important scene :(

-- Roybal

Actually, that scene is in "Such Sweet Sorrow" (which is on Friday, 10/13) when Carter sends his patient into shock after giving her the antibiotic Bactrim that she told him she was allergic to. Just in case you still want to see that scene!

***

I noticed that they cut multiple scenes out of today's epi, "The Fastest Year." It hasn't been quite as noticeable lately- just little things, but today one of the ones I noticed was when Carol and Luka were at Wrigley's Field and Carol was trying to explain baseball to him. I like that scene because I would probably sound a *lot* like Carol if I was explaining the game- I don't know that much about it! I'd be even worse at football, though... LOL!

~Jessica~ ;-)

-- Jessica (princessleia913@excite.com), October 11, 2000.

I had company on Friday night and made the person holding the remote turn to ER during the last six minutes of SSS. I hadn't seen it since May and teared up again!

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), October 14, 2000.